Zirconia sulfate supported on graphitic carbon nitride nanoplates: a new catalyst for efficient synthesis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural

Abstract

In an attempt to devise an effective catalyst for 5-hydroxymethylfurfural production, zirconia sulfate was prepared through a facile protocol and immobilized on graphitic carbon nitride nanoplate. The catalyst was analyzed via various techniques, encompassing FTIR, XRD, BET, SEM/EDS, XPS, ICP, and mapping and utilized as a heterogeneous catalyst for the dehydration of fructose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural. Optimization of the reaction conditions using the response surface method revealed that 40 wt% of the catalyst at 80 °C resulted in 98% product in 40 min. Gratifyingly, the catalyst showed high recyclability up to 7 runs with scant leaching of zirconia sulfate. A comparative study also underlined that a combination of zirconia sulfate and graphitic carbon nitride nanoplate was beneficiary for catalysis and resulted in an improvement of the catalytic activity. The kinetic assessments also indicated that E_a was 23.74 kJ/mol. Moreover, the thermodynamic parameters of \({\Delta \text{H}}^{\ne }\), \({\Delta \text{S}}^{\ne }\) and \({\Delta \text{G}}^{\ne }\) were determined as 19.35 kJ/mol, − 0.17 kJ/mol and 79.36 kJ/mol, respectively.